


Into Darkness

by JustPlainAmy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Origional Characters, my own stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:32:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustPlainAmy/pseuds/JustPlainAmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Much Madness is divinest Sense -<br/>To a discerning Eye -<br/>Much Sense - the starkest Madness -<br/>’Tis the Majority<br/>In this, as all, prevail -<br/>Assent - and you are sane -<br/>Demur - you’re straightway dangerous -<br/>And handled with a Chain -<br/>~Emily Dickinson</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into Darkness

He couldn’t do it.  
No one could make him do it, not even the people that claimed to love him most in this world. What they did was horrible and they couldn’t make him do that to the blonde little girl. He couldn’t kill her, not like Father had wanted. No, even the thought of hurting her made his stomach churn and throat gag, forcing Gabriel to try the unthinkable. He grabbed a slightly tattered backpack from his room, changed out of his sleep cloths, then hid himself under the covers. His stealth was necessary to get by his parents-  
No. they weren’t his parents anymore; they were monsters. Patiently he waited for the light to fade from under his door to signal the monsters slumber. Since Gabriel was one for precautions, he waited hours before sneaking out of his room quietly. Shoving a few things into his backpack, seemingly at random but calculated enough in his nervous mind, he grabbed the 300 dollars that Selena kept tucked in the phone book on the bookshelf, along with a flashlight, a few water bottles and his pocket knife.  
Doing his best to sneak into the lofty barn, he made as little noise as possible, sticking to the shadows as he watched the too fast rise and fall of the blonde haired girl's chest. She was cruelly chained to the metal hoops drilled into the barn‘s dirt floor, desperately tugging at her restraints as brown eyes searched frantically around while tears rolled down her face. He’d seen it all before, he just never understood the crippling fear these people felt. Before, he'd let the previous victims die because it felt normal, to be honest it was completely normal, to him at least. Now he had to save her, knowing that he needed to do this, or completely lose his sanity. Taking a deep breath, he warily stepped out of the shadows, and into the young girl‘s line of sight.  
Expecting the scream that she tried to force out through her gag, he lunged forward and carefully placed a hand over her mouth. His rash movements left her nostrils flaring, and she cried harder while trying to kick and punch him by thrashing as much as her bindings would allow her to. He ended up getting a few trivial scrapes, but he ignored them as he stared circumspectly out at the house door, waiting in fear for the sound of Jerry waking up and storming outside to silence the girl’s cries.  
Surprisingly, the rattle of the barn door never came. The girl fell silent against him, tears still flowing but she had gone quiet, alternating between staring at Gabriel and the barn door where his own cool, gray eyes were focused. After a few minutes when he was sure they weren’t awake, he moved to slip the knife out of his pocket while suppressing her screams with his hand. Making a shushing motion with the hand holding the pocket knife, he flipped it open and tucked it in between the gag and her head. Swiftly he cut it and let the dirtied cloth fall while keeping his hand cupped around her mouth. Dropping the knife to his side, he made the same seemingly innocent motion and put his fingers to his lips. He lowered the finger when she finally nodded her head in understanding, hope creeping into her lackluster tear reddened eyes. Slowly, he removed his hand making sure she would stay quiet. When he was confident in her silence, he picked the knife up and started to hack away at the huge knots that tied her left wrist to the metal hoop closest to him. He had freed both of her hands and had gone onto her feet, which were chained together with a rather archaic looking lock. It was covered in rust and had obviously seen better days. When he was trying to slip the tip of the knife into the keyhole, she spoke up. Undoubtedly, her voice was rough from screaming and only remained a hoarse whisper.  
“Why are you saving me?”  
He didn’t answer her, because if he was honest with himself he hadn’t really worked out why he was helping her either. Just the terrible twisting in his gut when he thought about Jerry having him bury her deep in the woods lined up next to the other victims, in the cold and uncaring way that Gabriel was used to by now. She would be just like the rest of Jerry and Selena‘s prey, forgotten and more importantly dead. So he just ignored the big brown doe eyes that were searching him in a way that felt nearly physical and intimate; so much so that small glistening beads of sweat had formed upon his tense brow. Silently he shrugged his shoulders as he twisted the chains slightly, which caused a pained cry from her while her fingers dug into the ground, face twisted into a grimace that distorted her pale features.  
Well it seemed then that the entire rescue plan was determined to get even more impossible than it already was. There was a swelling around her ankle along with blackened purple bruising that covered the entirety of her ankle and part of her foot, he stared at it for all of a second about to look away when the bruise seemed to move… Shaking off the weird feeling and ignoring precisely what he just saw he got back to the task at hand, okay, her ankle was definitely broken. So any and all hope of running as fast as they could through the woods together was shot... He had no other option now he had to carry her.  
Now weary of the broken ankle, he did his best to push the knife into the lock careful not to jar it too much as he quickly popped the rusty thing open with a quiet cracking noise that seemed to reverberate inside the quiet barn. Pulling at the chains he finally seemed to be getting them loose when she spoke again.  
“I’m Tracy, and thank you.”  
The steel in her voice made him jump even as he tossed the chains aside, this little girl looked like she was barely 12, yet the way she spoke made her sound sure and brave in ways he was not. It contradicted the paralyzing fear in her large eyes, it sounded like she wasn’t afraid even if she was only acting it. He was 17 and instantly knew he would be kidding himself if he thought that he could even act brave as he defied everything that he’s known. He wished he could be like her, it would be easier for him now. To be brave or at least have the ability to fake it as well as she could. Doing his best to keep his voice from cracking to much with withheld emotion he whispered back a quiet.

“You’re welcome”

 

Then as slowly as he could, he lifted her to her feet looping one arm around her waist helping her stand on her uninjured leg, his hands shaking a little as he did so. Working as quickly as he could, slipping the backpack off his shoulders and onto Tracy’s, crouching quickly and motioning for her to jump on his back. Only a second later he felt slim arms wrap around his neck as her kneecaps dug into his sides. With that he took off running as fast as he could desperate to get away from the light of the house. Keeping again to his shadows while trying his best not to jar the smaller figure on his back too much as she clung to him tighter still as they raced into the foreboding darkness of the night.

 

Maybe he had been a little too overconfident before when he had thought himself to be a good runner, but it was a whole other story with a passenger on his back no matter how light they may be. But all the same he focused on the soft breath against his neck, navigating the tall pine trees that seemed to be grasping at them. Random vines and sticks reaching out to grab him tugging at the faded plaid shirt he was wearing, only serving to heighten the paranoia that seemed to be taking over his mind. Each twig was Jerry, grabbing him and pulling him back, each rock or log was a bear trap Jerry had set. He only ran faster at the thought, darting through those tall trees he had called home for so long. And by the time they made it to the closest highway he was already panting hard, despite the fact his pace had been only half of his normal sprint along with only running roughly 6 miles

Crossing the highway had been the easy part, running across the oddly empty highway, making his way through the 8 lanes of it. Pausing only to jump over the short divider that separated the lanes in the middle. The whole endeavor boosted his adrenalin to let him shake the nagging tiredness that had been begging to overcome him since he had left home. He ignored it despite the miles he had yet to trek if he wanted to make it into the city by morning. According to his watch he had about 2 and a half hours before sunrise.  
To make matters worse he was half convinced that Tracy had gone into shock. She had slowly gone limp against his back and neck though he still held tight to the legs wrapped around his midsection, hunching forward making sure she didn’t slip from her place against his back. Silently worrying over the fact he couldn‘t hear her breathing anymore, at least over his own gasping breaths and the hand draped around his neck was cold as ice. He still had to hurry though, and if he didn't Tracy may die just like the rest.... Sick or not. That along with knowing that Jerry would have them both back in a few hours if he didn’t hurry. Considering the fact that tracking the path of a person on foot through miles of woods didn’t seem that daunting of a task for him, it would certainly be effortless enough for Jerry.  
Just the thought made him push a little harder still, running through the tall grass and the random wooded sections that separated the roads as he did his best to navigate them all. Checking up ahead of him every few minutes to make sure that the sparkling lights of the city that lay ahead of him the suburbs surrounding the city was becoming more and more visible. With the thin golden light of the sun that was slipping over the horizon and within minutes bathing the world completely in sunlight.

He couldn’t carry her much longer, maybe he could put her down for a moment rest but at the same time he was so scared, more scared than he ever had been before especially at the thought of stopping. Even checking on her to see if she was at least half conscious seemed daunting, it seemed reasonable enough even though all of him was screaming at him to get away to save the little girl who for the first time in his life made him feel something besides apathy. Just her face made the previously unknown feelings of doubt and disgust creep into his heart urging him on to save the innocence he saw in her. Innocence he felt that he had never possessed in anyway, not living with those monsters.  
The slow moving feeling of his legs seemed to make the decision much to his unease, as one knee wobbled dangerously to the side, a choked cry of pain burst through his lips as he fell forward. His face making direct contact with dirt since both of his hands were still preoccupied with keeping Tracy situated on his back and unable to break his fall.  
Standing up didn’t really seem to be an option so he laid there for several minutes just focusing on the steady tickling of Tracy’s breath against his neck, slow and rhythmic as each breath shifted a curl or two of too-long brown hair. Even ignoring his own pain it took him nearly ten minutes by his own reckoning to successfully shift allowing Tracy to slide off his back and roll over propping himself up on one arm. While he got himself situated his free hand reached under her chin determined to take her pulse, as if he would know if I was irregular, forget that he was acting like he would know what to do if it was irregular, who was he kidding? He didn’t have the first idea of anything past basic first aid let alone shock or whatever was happening now that she was unconscious.

Finally finding her pulse he was more than relieved to find it strong and steady unlike his own erratic one. Sure that she was as okay as she could get, he allowed himself to rest flopping back onto the hard ground still struggling to lower his heart rate when he heard it. The sound of a rusty old truck rumbling slowly down the highway that they were laying less than ten feet from the edge of. It was something to be discarded considering the fact it WAS a highway. But what made his heart clench, was when he glanced toward the sound that was rumbling their direction, it was a rusty blue truck. One that he had seen many, many times returning home with new victims bundled up tight in its backseat. It was Jerry. And he had found them.

His tired muscles screamed in pain as he shot up much too slow for his liking standing up and scooping up Tracy who felt like a ton of bricks rather than the featherweight he knew her to be. Stumbling as he frantically ran the truck gaining speed behind him now less than 1,000 ft. away down the long highway. He was running on the road and he almost immediately regretted the fact because Jerry was closing in and there was no way he could escape. His legs just wouldn’t cooperate and he didn’t know why but he kept running, and running until he felt the front of the bumper collide with the back of his thighs. Immediately causing him to fall getting sucked under the truck eyes staying open long enough for him to see Tracy be thrown a few feet to the side of the road and into the ditch just before his face smashed violently against the pavement. It was strange he knew he should be in pain, but he didn't really feel anything except something that was tugging at the edge of his mind. It was a terrible, disgustingly warm feeling of, well…. Blackness and it began creeping over him. It’s tendrils of inky black darkness sucking him in, feeling it strangle him slowly pushing against his mouth and nose preventing breath from escaping or coming in. Unable to move seeing as he was basically paralyzed by this darkness he let out a silent howl of horror his body shaking with the sheer forth of it feeling as if it was ripping open his lungs- He woke up.

A cold sweat covered him completely, making his jeans cling to him like a second skin and the button that had embedded itself under his chin ripped free startling a curse out of him mouth. Jumping out of bed Gabriel rushed to the shower desperate to wash off the blackness that made his stomach twist, that left him feeling dirty beyond belief. Scrubbing so hard that he was sure he took off the top layer of his skin, angry red and pink skin seemed to glare at him confirming his theory as he sank to floor of his shower, letting the still hot water continue to burn his skin as he watch his hands shaking in front of his face.

He did his best to calm himself enough to stop himself from shaking changing quickly while he worked to pull himself together, and now that the strait panic left him he felt….. So, empty, so empty it made him his chest ache as if there was an actual wound there. Gaping and open, as if someone had ripped open his chest and stolen something precious to him. Taking a shuddering breath he made his way down the stairs to the kitchen, slowly pouring himself cereal knowing exactly what was going to happen but unable to fight it as he focused on that emptiness. That and the black tendrils that peaked into the edges of his vision every now and then making his back stiffen with fear every time he caught sight of it. His punishment.  
So when Jerry grabbed his arm at the breakfast table though he only glanced up expectedly at the balding older male.  
“Ready to join your old man, Sunny boy?”

He merely shrugged his shoulders before standing up ,depositing his still full bowl in the sink and following him out into the barn. He didn’t flinch once as the blonde girls blood spattered across him or when she pleaded with him and screamed and cried the second after Jerry removed her gag handing Gabriel a particularly large knife and undid the knots. Feeling the cool weight of the butcher knife, almost absently bring the knife down into her chest, once, twice, three times the fourth time was when the screaming stopped. It was replaced with a few garbled pleas as the last of her tears trailed down her face and when he brought the knife down for the fifth time was when she stopped moving all together glassy eyes staring upwards and directionless as well as lifeless.  
Killing her didn’t make the darkness recede from him, the awful black stuff was just as present as it was before. The hole in his chest seemed to close part way before being torn open once again, wider and more painful than before as the bright light left her pain dulled brown eyes. She was different from the dream but the same all at once, this encouraged the blackness that had briefly dissipated but never really left him, neither of them did. They just stayed there with him in his mind, getting larger and larger taking over what was left of what he considered to be him, his personality left unadulterated by his parents, and in a moment it was gone. Consumed after only a moment of sheer horror, engulfing him further than ever before. He could feel it‘s glee and it‘s horrible warmth, that was so sticky and cloying not unlike last time. But this time, he he couldn't even bring about the energy to fight it, diving head first into darkness unable to save himself from the one person he couldn't hope but protect against. Himself, Leaving him wondering all the while if this was what madness was like….


End file.
